Purr Inside Of Me

Today is my fourth day in Taiwan. We’ve arrived Sunday early morning, so we had the whole weekend for sightseeing.

At the first glance capital of Taiwan - Taipei was supposed to be dirty and grizzly. To be honest - most of the streets far away from the city center are sad, but definitely not dirty! Taiwanese people take care of the place they live and they’re not leaving any rubbish on the streets. It’s very positive, in my opinion, there are too little free-standing trash bins.

The closer to the center of Taipei, the more green it is. And I’m not talking about parks (they don’t have a lot of squares here), I’m actually talking about green loggias, small trees and pots full of plants standing along the streets! These are small elements, but they’re making the whole area really charming and perfect in its simplicity.
If I compare the weather here and the weather in Poland I can say, that here’s wonderful! Of course, sometimes we have rainy days, but I’m really glad, that I can forget about the snow for a while! The temperature during last 4 days was between 18-30°C and around 11°C during the nights.
The air humidity varies around 90%, which means that even lower temperature is noticeable as a higher.

Taiwan climate allows succulents and cactuses to grow up easily! Although the rain they’re staying in really good condition. I have no idea how it’s even possible, probably they’re not moldering because they have an opportunity to dry between the next rain period.
I’m totally succulent freak so I feel like in heaven here! Even in our hotel room, they have few succulents staying on the windowsill.

What even more - with the lucky coincidence there is weekend plant market close to our hotel. I was really amazed when I saw a lot of kind of succulents there! There were a lot of rare species, which I wasn’t able to buy in Poland. Soo…. I bought 13 new succulents there! Keep your fingers crossed for me, because I’m going to take them to Poland in hand luggage haha!
I’ve checked, that it’s not forbidden to take any plants from Asia to Europe, so I’ll try to bring them alive to the destination point!
All these seedlings were so cheap, so I just couldn’t walk away! Well, all the prices in Taiwan are really low for me, so I think our trip won’t hurt our pocket too much.

Well, I don’t know yet how it’s outside the capital of Taiwan, but here in the main city, there is a lot of cats!
They’re mostly free-living cats or just cats which have homes but the owners let them walk on the streets. Both of them are accepted by the society, people feed them and treat well. No one chases them away or hurts them. They’re just like friends, which are living next to the people.
I met the first cat when I exited Uber from the airport. It was the cute tabby cat, which was relaxing on someone’s motorbike.

According to the number of cats living around the city center, all the cat restaurants and coffee shops are very popular here. But you have to know that these spots are not typical cat cafes like in other countries I was able to visit in the past. Doors and windows are not protected by the net, there are no specific cat rooms, where they can hide and separate from the people. Even the kitchen is not fenced - a cat can spend time there whenever he wants to.
Actually, cat in the place like this is a guest and resident at once, he can come and go out when he wants to. He takes a nap on the coffee machine or makes accompany for restaurant/cafe clients when he wants to.

So the cat coffee shop is just a standard coffee shop, it’s not organized for a cat (no toys, special shelves etc), but it helps him to survive and makes the life easier.
There is, of course, a cat litter box, food bowl, and some scratching mat, but they’re staying in one corner.
I think there are no specific cleanliness requirements in Taiwan. In Poland, coffee shop like this wouldn’t probably survive, because Sanepid wouldn’t allow for conditions like this, but actually, I feel it’s an exaggeration. Local people like places like this, no one gets sick, people coming here with whole families, even with small kids! I wish it'll happen in Poland one day!

As a typical “crazy cat lady” I couldn’t miss visiting the “Cat village” railway station.

Our Taiwanese friend told us, that it’s unofficial cat shelter, but to be honest - I have mixed feelings about this place.
Well, cats have a warm place to sleep, they’re not hungry - but it’s all they have!
No one sterilizes them, so they’re breeding more and more cats; no one heals them when they’re getting sick - most of them are snotty, have abscessed eyes or a case like this below - the cat with no fur on the whole belly…

All these people which “take care” of cats are volunteers, but they have small stores and coffee shops there too. And everything depends on their pure heart.
Some of them really take care of cats, some of them treat them as a way to earn more money.
Some of them are just sellers who love cats, but some of them keep them in the cages (sometimes 5 cats in one small container) or tie them to the stands…
And what has hurt me the most - cat which was closed in the small cage (the owner haven’t even given him a soft blanket to lie on) and a huge speaker at the top. Of course, loud music was turned on and cat cringed inside. What do you think about that situation? For me, it’s cruelty to animals and it should have been forbidden!
Luckily - most of the cats living there felt good; most of them was asking for attention and for petting them.

After we exit the “Cat village” we decided to get a train to the next small village. Our goal was to get to the Shifen Sky Lantern Festival. It’s organized every year in Pingxi district, everyone can send a wish written on the paper lantern!

Well, I have to admit, that visiting this place is one of the best choice I could make! I’ll remember it for a long time!
We sent the lantern to the sky together with our Taiwanese friends!

Something that you have to definitely see when you travel to Taipei is a night market. There are several markets in the whole town, all of them are good; we decided to go to Shihlin Nightmarket (it was the closest one).

We were able to try most of typical local dishes and snacks there. I don’t remember the names right now, but we have ordered all these things which Tony did recommend us. We tried chicken leg stuffed with a rice, chicken breast in crunchy breadcrumbs, small steamed rolls (I decided to try this one with leeks and the egg), blamed beef, corn in barbecue sauce with sesame topping and of course ice cream with nuts topping and coriander in some kind of pancake.
The best way is to go with friends for a market like this because you can buy one thing and share it - so you can try more things. But when you can’t organize a group you can visit night market more than once, it’s open every night during the whole week. And in my opinion - the market is the best way to dine in Taipei!

The only one thing which we haven’t tried is “stinky tofu” - it’s nothing more than fermented tofu, local people love it. Well, the smell of this snack totally discouraged us from tasting it, maybe we’ll be braver next time!


And the last thing I wanted to write about today is a public transport.
I think Taipei is well communicated - there is 5 underground lines and buses.
Traveling with underground trains is simple and clear, but buses are a totally different story.

So if you want to use an underground train you just need to buy a token like this above. The price depends on how long your journey is.

But when you want to use a bus, you can’t just buy a single ticket - you have to pay for a driver "ticket". Sometimes you’re paying while entering and sometimes while exiting a bus.
And there is also a case when you need to pay twice - while entering and exiting a bus - it’s also ok. It’s additional payment when you’re going to take a long journey (I believe it’s something like the second zone), but still, it’s not written anywhere what does it exactly mean “long journey”. It depends on how much time do you spend in a bus and which stop are you going to exit (some stops requires additional payment).
Our Taiwanese friend tried to explain us how does it work, but it’s a little bit complicated for me.
And when you’re paying for a trip you make, you won’t get any bill - you just throw the money into the huge metal box, the driver won’t even check what are you putting in - coins or some rocks.

And what about suburb trains? Well, you can also buy a ticket before you enter the train, but you can also do it after you exit it. But this case is much more simple than buses - if there is a ticket office on the station, you’ll buy a ticket there; if there isn’t - you’ll pay after you arrive.
You can’t buy a ticket during your way.
I have no idea how does it work if there is no ticket office neither on departure nor the destination station…
But I learned, that local people are fair, they’re not cheating - they’re paying for a train, bus etc even if no one checks it.

For now, I can’t tell too much about driving a car here. We’re going to rent a car next weekend because we’re planning a trip around the island.
For sure there are thousands of scooters and motorbikes here - it’s the easiest way to get from the point A to B. And if they're not using a two-wheeled vehicle it’s usually a huge car like SUV or Crossover.
But parking along the street is really hard here, it’s almost impossible! Of course, there are parking spots, but they’re ridiculously expensive!

Drivers culture and behavior is quite specific. Out Taiwanese friend told us, that people living here are kind and smiley, but not when they’re drivers at the moment. And I think it’s true - when we were traveling with Uber (from the airport to the hotel) a lot of cars were trying to change a lane driving into the middle of the car on the neighboring lane. The man who was giving us a lift didn’t even care about that, we were totally frightened when some different car was less than 10cm from ours! We were on the road with the speed limit set to 120km/h, so accident here could be really serious!
Our friend living here told us, that it’s popular practice to force the priority…
When someone’s acting like this in Poland it’s always caused by mistake/dissociation/blindness/fatigue (pick the right one), it’s never deliberate action! And I always use a horn to warn someone about the danger.
Well, lanes here are real driving arteries at the high-speed roads, but at the rest, I feel, they’re just contractual lines - sometimes some cars are using 2 lanes at the same time. And taxis are the worst I think!

Most of the parking spots are located near the small streets, so it’s not complicated to exit them, but when you need to exit a hotel, which is located near the big road - it can be really hard!
But you can get some help, hotels and apartment buildings are hiring a men, who can enable you to enter the traffic - he’ll stop or slow down cars using the marginal lane and let you in.
I have to admit, that it’s interesting solution ;)

So… I can rate my first contact with Asia for A; I really love to get to know new places and cultures of people living there. And here everything is new for me!
All these trips make my life better and more colorful.
I can’t tell you when I’ll be able to write something more, but expect some note in the nearest future! :)

And at the end few pictures more:

This building is Taipei 101 - the biggest shopping mall in Taipei.

This trash in flames is not just a trash - it’s a sacrifice to the gods. And it’s quite a popular view here.

This is pedestrian crossing - it allows pedestrians to cross each one street and also go through the diagonal. I have no idea how can it work properly without any accidents! But it actually somehow does!

And this is the view from our hotel :)